


After The Fanfic Reading

by Jake_Matthews



Category: Smosh Games
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-02-08
Packaged: 2018-04-25 07:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4952302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jake_Matthews/pseuds/Jake_Matthews
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my first attempt at writing a fanfic. It's set immediately after the smosh games bonus video "New Smosh Games Members?" where Wes and Flitz are inducted officially into the gang by being forced to read a fanfic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. After The Fanfic Reading

"Wow, you guys got sooo close! I seriously thought you were gonna kiss!" Anthony exclaimed. They had just turned off the cameras after filming Wes and Flitz's "initiation" into Smosh Games.

"That's what we call committing to the bit," replied Flitz, grinning. Wes smiled weakly, not quite meeting his eyes. Those last two "kisses" had been slightly too close. Sure, he'd started the first one, just fooling around, but he'd really thought Flitz was actually going to kiss him on the last two times. If that had happened, he didn't think he'd have been able to control himself. It was hard enough trying not to be aroused by all of the little touches, or from having placed his hand so far up Flitz's thigh.

Everybody was starting to disperse, chatting and heading off for lunch. Wes followed them, trying to wrestle his thoughts away from Flitz. Joven saw how distracted he looked and came up beside him.

"Hey, you okay buddy?" Joven said quietly, so the others wouldn't hear. Unlike them, Joven knew all about Wes's feelings towards Flitz. "D'you need to head off for a bit, or are you okay to stick around for lunch?"

Wes glanced up at him, unsure of how he felt. "I don't want anyone to suspect anything..."

"But you do wanna go?" Joven guessed, looking down at Wes. Wes nodded silently, still not looking up at anyone. "Okay, buddy, I got you." Then, loud enough for everyone to hear, Joven said, "Err, guys, I'm feeling a little dizzy..." He stumbled, grabbing onto Ian in front for support.

"Woah, Joven, you okay?" asked Anthony, as Wes and Ian helped Joven pick himself up. Joven shook his head very slightly, feigning illness.

"I really don't feel too good guys. Wes, can you, like, drive me home?" He said.

\- - - -

"Thanks for doing that man, I really didn't feel like going to lunch with them after that." The two of them were in the car, heading back to their apartment.

"No worries. I did say you wouldn't be able to look at each other after that. And look, I'm sorry about making you do that. Everyone else just got so behind the idea of making you two read a fanfic together, I couldn't really object without telling them... and I know you wouldn't want that." Joven looked over at Wes, checking that all was well with his friend.

"Yeah, I guess you couldn't really. And I guess it could've been worse, right? We could've been reading a worse fic. One that was more graphic, longer, you know." He sighed. Having a crush on Flitz was hard, especially after that. "How am I supposed to face him after this? I mean, sure he doesn't actually know yet... Would it really be so bad if I told him?" He glanced over at Joven for reassurance as they pulled into their drive.

"I'm really not the expert on these things, Wes. But I do know Flitz is straight, so there's really no point in you saying anything. You need to just move on and... find someone who cares for you, and will be there for you when you need them. Someone who's interested in you. If you would just stop mooning over Flitz, then maybe you could find that someone - right now they could be sitting right next to you and you wouldn't even know it!" Wes looked quizzically at Joven, having just parked the car.

"They could be sitting right next to me? You're the only one sat next to me Joven, and you don't... you're not..." He trailed off, looking into Joven's eyes, the truth suddenly dawning on him. "You...? For how long?"

"Pretty much since things fell apart with Erin. I was too scared to tell you... I didn't know if you'd... and then, when you told me about this thing for Flitz, I just -" His words were cut short by Wes's lips suddenly pressing against his own. He kissed back, pulling Wes closer. They ran their hands through each other's hair, kissing passionately.

Eventually, Wes pulled back, panting for breath. He smiled at Joven, and asked, "D'you wanna continue this upstairs?"


	2. Lunch

"I hope Joven is okay," Mari said as she sat down at the table opposite Sohinki. Next to them, Flitz and Anthony were opposite each other, and at the end of the table Ian and Lasercorn were failing miserably at subtlety as they ran their feet up and down each others calves under the table. As usual, the others pretended not to notice.

"He'll be fine, he's probably just feeling awkward around Ian after the fic," Flitz replied.

"What a wimp! I mean c'mon, me and Anthony have read way worse stuff about us." Ian glanced up, trying not to catch Lasercorn's eye in case he gave away what was going on with them.

"Yeah, but we've never had it acted out right before our eyes. Did you not see how bad Joven was freaking out when they nearly kissed? He's totally freaked out by the fanfic."

"I guess we have to put off filming Grand Theft Smosh then, if we're down Joven and Wes." Sohinki stabbed at his food angrily, showing his distaste for putting off the shoot.

"Woohoo! Afternoon off!" cried Lasercorn, his mouth stuffed full off food.

"Oh my god, learn some table manners you pig!" Mari threw a chip at him down the table, and he responded by pulling a face at her.

"Ugh, seriously Lasercorn, that is disgusting." Ian intervened casually, still trying desperately not to reveal the "secret" which everyone knew anyway.

Lasersorn finished eating first, having started stuffing his face before even sitting down, and after swallowing his last bite, he caught Ian's eye then glanced at his watch and proclaimed, "Well, I'd better get going, I have... important... stuff... that needs doing... at home... Er, I'll see you guys tomorrow." He hurried off before they could ask questions or challenge his excuse. Ian wolfed down the rest of his food, then racked his brains for his own excuse.

"I've actually got some editing at home that needs finishing, so I better head off too. See you." There was a chorus of "Bye!"s and "Bye Ian!"s from the others, then Ian walked off after Lasercorn.

"How long was that?" Anthony looked over at Sohinki, who had his phone out with a timer up.

"1 minute, 17 seconds. Are they even trying to be subtle anymore?"

"Are you suggesting they used to try? Come on they've been so obvious right from day one! Tell me again why we're still pretending we don't know?" Mari looked around at the guys, searching for an answer.

"How many times do I have to tell you, if we tell them we know before they decide they're ready for us to know, Ian will freak out. He might even leave Lasercorn, and you see how happy they are together. I don't want to put Lasercorn through the same thing I went through when Ian wasn't ready to be public." Anthony looked down at his food, pushing it around his plate glumly. The others gave him sympathetic looks.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have said... but surely he must be ready by now? Why's he still being so shy about it?"

"Don't ask me."

\- - - -

Ian met up with Lasercorn in the car park, hopping straight into Lasercorn's car when he got there. Before saying a word he pulled his boyfriend in for a kiss. Then he pulled back and frowned.

"What was with that excuse back there? You could have given us away! You know I'm not ready-"

"To make this thing public, I know babe, I'm sorry. I just kinda froze up a bit and forgot what I was saying halfway through. I got distracted by your beautiful face." Lasercorn reached out to stroke that face, really hoping a little bit of sweet-talking would appease his lover. He'd been looking forward to a nice afternoon together, and didn't want it spoiled by an argument before it had even begun. He leaned in for a gentle kiss, and when Ian still didn't look completely appeased, he said quietly, "C'mon, if they were gonna get suspicious, they'd have said something by now. Those idiots don't have the slightest clue what's going on. Don't let the thought of them spoil our moment." He pouted, knowing Ian wouldn't be able to resist that, or at least not for long. And sure enough, Ian's frown quickly melted away and he moved in to continue kissing Lasercorn.

"Mmm... C'mon... we should... go... before... someone sees..." Ian murmured between kisses. Reluctantly, Lasercorn pulled back from the kiss and started the engine.


	3. The Song

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So this chapter is based on the bonus video which had Joven singing to Wes at the end (link here: https://youtu.be/Yld5J66kCbU). I used actual comments copied and pasted from YouTube, so sorry about the bad grammar in them. Just to point out - I started writing this fic on Wattpad before that video, so I was shipping Joven and Wes first! ;-)

He was sat in the game room scrolling desperately through the comments on his phone. He couldn't believe Wes had actually put that in the video, it had just been a bit of fun, between the two of them, why did he have to go and make it public like that! It had only been a couple of weeks since they first hooked up, and they'd recorded Joven singing to Wes as a bit of fun. But then Wes went and put it up at the end of the bonus scenes for Grand Theft Smosh. Joven looked through the things being said about his song.

"fan-fiction writers GO!"

"Is weshire canon now?!!!"

"#weshire"

"Run Wes, and don't look back."

"Were you drunk?"

"ha GAY"

"I knew that joven had a thing for Wes! Just kidding joven your awesome"

"Proof that Joven is truly gay"

"i know ship jovenXwes because of that damn song. lets just say joven brought it upon himself."

"so can this be taken as joven coming out of the closet?"

"Wes should answer with another song in return!"

Wes walked through the door and saw him sat there, hunched over his phone. "Joven? You okay, hun?" He walked over and sat beside him, placing a hand between his shoulders.

"How could you do that to me, Wes? It was a bit of fun... it was supposed to be private! I can't believe you'd... I thought you cared about me!" Tears streamed down his face, dripping from his chin into his lap. He ignored them, even when they landed on the screen of his phone.

"Sweetie..."

"No! Don't you 'sweetie' me! I'm used to being a laughing stock, but this... You could've at least consulted me before you published my feelings on the internet! You could've warned me before you put the video up so I could be prepared - my parents watched that, and I hadn't come out to them yet!" His voice cracked he was crying so hard. Sobs racked his body and his shoulders shook. Wes began to rub his back in a circular motion, but Joven leapt out of his seat and threw his arm off. "Don't touch me - don't try and act like everything's okay! It's not okay Wesley!" His shouts attracted the rest of the gang, who all began to watch the argument.

"Joshua, please, just- just listen to me, okay?" Wes pleaded with him. "I didn't-"

"What can you possibly have to say that will make what you did 'okay'? Nothing, that's what! It's not fair of you to make me come out like that! You're supposed to wait until we're both ready! That's why we always pretend there's nothing going on between Ian and Lasercorn - we don't want to force them out before they're ready - but you didn't give me that, did you?" Joven was fuming, but then a small voice from the doorway distracted him.

"You guys know about me and Lasercorn?" Ian was stood in the doorway with Anthony. Lasercorn was just visible over his shoulder, and Sohinki, Mari and Flitz were sat together by the computers at the other end of the room, all staring at Ian. There was silence for a moment, then Anthony spoke up.

"Uhh, yeah, we know. Mari overheard you guys talking about a date, Matt glimpsed you kissing, and we all kinda spotted the way you guys... uh..."

"Look at each other and touch each other in public." Wes finished the sentence for him.

"Yeah," Anthony agreed. "They were thinking about confronting the two of you about it, but uhh... I convinced them it would be better to, uhh... let you guys... I figured you'd tell us when you were ready." Anthony ran his fingers through his hair nervously. He was really worried that Ian finding out would spell disaster for Iancorn.

Ian frowned up at Anthony. "And how exactly did you convince them? Did you tell them about...?" he left the question unfinished, knowing Anthony knew the end of it. Lasercorn gave them a confused look, and everyone else looked away awkwardly. Anthony nodded slowly, looking down at the floor, refusing to meet Ian's eyes. Ian scoffed.. When he spoke there was venom in his voice. "Of course you did. Cause you always wanted to tell everyone you f-"

"Ian! Look, I don't know what he told the guys, but you can't treat him like that. He's your friend, and from what I can tell, he was only trying to protect us. Just let it go, babe." Lasercorn had pushed forward between Ian and Anthony, and he placed a hand on Ian's cheek. Ian looked into his eyes, and his expression softened. He sighed, and placed his own hand on Lasercorn's shoulder. Then he looked back up at Anthony.

"Sorry. I shouldn't have snapped. I just thought that was private."

Anthony smiled at him. "It was, but I didn't want Lasercorn to go through the same thing I did, and it was the only way to make things clear to them," he said, gesturing towards everybody else.

Lasercorn frowned. "The same thing you did? Di- did you guys used to date? For real?" He looked from one to the other, shock and a hint of jealousy showing on his face.

"It was years ago, and, well... Anthony wanted to come out to people, I was too scared, so I kept asking him to just keep it in a little longer. Eventually he tried to force it, so I dumped him." Ian looked a little guilty about it as he said it, but then he looked back at Lasercorn, and he found he couldn't help smiling.

"Okay, so everything with you guys is sorted, now we just need to deal with Weshire," Flitz began. Everyone's attention briefly flickered over to him then focused on Wes and Joven. "So, what exactly is the problem with you two?"

"Oh, don't act like you don't know what he did! He put that clip of me singing to him at the end of the video -"

"I didn't! I wasn't the one who did the final edit on that video! I was trying to tell you that, but you just started yelling at me!"

"You - you didn't do it?" Joven croaked, looking at Wes with a shocked and dumbfounded expression.

"Of course I didn't! We've only been together two weeks, and I'm not ready to go public yet either! I didn't even realise the footage of you singing was in the stuff I gave Matt to edit." Sohinki's face went red as Joven whirled round, furious.

"You posted that footage?! How could you? Do you have any idea -"

"I didn't know you guys were actually dating! I just thought it was a bit of fun, just you being, you know, you. And come on, most of the fans probably took it that way too, so there's no harm done really. Right?" He looked around for support, but found none.

"Have you looked at the comments on that video? People are mocking me. And some of them are asking if it's real, they're taking it seriously, and I know it shouldn't matter if they know, I shouldn't care what they think, but... I'm not ready for the whole world to know. That was something pretty personal, and you just shared it without even checking whether I was okay with it?"

"Well, I just assumed, 'cause Wes gave it to me with the rest, that he'd checked already, and that you were okay with it. I shouldn't have done that, and I'm sorry." He did look genuinely sorry, so Joven backed down, shaking his head. Wes moved up beside him and slipped an arm his shoulders.

"So... you guys are actually...?" Mari asked. Joven and Wes nodded, smiling and leaning their heads against each other.

"You'll never be as good as Iancorn!" cried Lasercorn from the other side of the room, hanging his arms round Ian's neck and smooching him. Wes just shook his head, then said,

"We better get set up for gamebang."


	4. Competition

All through filming gamebang, Ian and Lasercorn struggled to keep their hands off each other. Now that they were out in the open, at least with the rest of the crew, it was a lot harder for them to reel it in. Every so often they would share a look or a touch, make a flirtatious joke about Iancorn, or just generally flirt with each other. After Lasercorn's accusation that Weshire was inferior to Iancorn, Joven was finding himself incredibly annoyed that Wes was behind the camera for this one, and they couldn't 'fight back' and prove that Weshire was at least as good as, if not better than Iancorn. He cast longing looks over at his lover, hiding out of the camera's view. Wes looked back at him, noting the longing in his eyes, and smiled sympathetically, clearly feeling the same way.

As soon as they'd reached the end of the episode, Wes darted forward to embrace Joven, gently brushing their lips together. In an attempt to one-up them, Lasercorn grabbed Ian and pulled him down for a heated kiss, slamming their lips together roughly. Their hearts raced, and they were both a little short of breath when they separated. Lasercorn turned back to Wes and Joven, pulling Ian's arms round him. He looked at them, daring them to try and beat that. Wes smiled, holding Joven's hand, and lent across to whisper to him. His lips brushed against Joven's ear, and he caught it between his teeth, giving it a gentle nip. Joven blushed, shocked and embarrassed by the dirty things his boyfriend had murmured and he snuggled closer, pulling Wes's arms around his waist.

Everyone's attention was focused on the two silently warring couples, despite the PDA's making them all feel rather uncomfortable. They looked to Iancorn for their next move. Lasercorn hesitated for a split second, before Ian spun him round and pulled him in for an incredibly passionate kiss, sliding his hands down to cup Lasercorn's butt. Lasercorn reached one hand up behind Ian's head, running his fingers through that ridiculous bowl cut, and the other hand he placed on Ian's hip, his thumb slipping inside Ian's shirt and stroking him. Wes raised an eyebrow at the two, and said, "Are you guys forgetting that we have an audience?"

Ian reluctantly pulled back from his heated make-out with Lasercorn, and looked up at Wes. "What's the matter? You guys giving up already? Just goes to show, Iancorn is better than Weshire."

"We've only been together two weeks, I think we can be excused for not wanting to make out in front of our friends."

"Besides, if we tried that, we wouldn't be able to hold back. We'd be fucking on the floor in no time." Wes's comments caused Joven to blush hard, and he shrank back into the comfort of his boyfriend's embrace. Wes smiled down at him, and placed a gentle kiss on the top of his head. Then he glanced back at Ian and Lasercorn. "You guys seem to be escalating things pretty fast, you don't feel threatened do you? Why are you trying so hard to prove you're better?" Joven giggled, still snuggling up to Wes.

Lasercorn feigned outrage at that. "How dare you! Why would we feel threatened? Weshire will never last! We'll beat you with our love!"

"Iancorn conquers all! We've already proven time and time again that Iancorn rules, every time we team up to defeat you in gamebang!" Ian continued the defence, hugging Lasercorn tight against his chest.

"You beat the others, maybe, but me and Joven have never competed against you as a team. How do you know we wouldn't be able to take you?" Wes raised his head proudly, showing his confidence in their ability to defeat Iancorn.

"Because it's Joven. Are you forgetting how much he sucks?"

"Maybe we could have a competition, set the two teams against each other, and see who comes out on top. Settle this like adults," Sohinki suggested, butting into the argument before things got too heated.

"Hey we could turn it into a new series on the channel - 'ship wars'. Each week we could pit two teams against each other in some video game challenge to determine who is the better ship, we could get people to comment with ships they wanna see fight it out, suggest challenges... It could be really popular." Anthony looked around, practically bouncing with excitement at his idea. There were mixed reactions from the others.

"Well wouldn't that get a little repetitive after a while? There are only so many ships we can pit against each other... and a limited number of challenges..." Mari seemed a little unsure.

"I don't know, we're pretty imaginative, we could probably keep coming up with challenges for a while... but maybe we should have three or four ships competing at once, just so we don't end up repeating the challenges..." Sohinki was a little more optimistic.

"Yeah and that way we could get a better idea of who's better overall, 'cause, well just one or two games aren't gonna give a fair result." Wes was relatively enthusiastic.

"Yeah, Weshire might win one on a fluke..." Lasercorn smirked, and Joven responded by pulling a face at him.

"But it is a good idea! It just needs a little improvement..." Ian had spotted the look of dejection on Anthony's face.

"Couldn't this turn out a little too much like gamebang? With most of us competing against each other..." Joven didn't seem very keen on the idea.

"Not if we don't put a punishment in for the losers, maybe we could have like, an ongoing leader-board that carries across from week to week, so we could keep track of who's best, and like there could be awards - we could have awards ceremonies - like every month, like we have four weeks of the same set of teams competing, then we do awards for them - oh my god, we have to do this guys." Flitz was now as excited as Anthony had been. Anthony grinned, happy that his idea was now getting somewhere.

"So who shall we start off with? I mean, obviously we need Iancorn and Weshire, they're kinda the reason we're doing this, but how do you guys wanna split?" Ian looked at Mari, Anthony, Flitz and Sohinki.

"Well, Marhinki is pretty popular, so they probably oughta start the competition together..." Flitz began.

"Do we have to have all of us competing? I don't think very many people ship us, and it might get a bit crowded..."

"If we have all of us, that'll make it more distinct from gamebang. We won't be able to have pre-existing ships every month, but maybe we can make some. But I think we need to discuss what sort of awards we're gonna have." Ian gave Anthony a serious look that told him 'don't be such a pussy'.

"Chocolate?" Joven suggested.

"I was thinking medals, but yeah, chocolate sounds good too."

"How about both? Have gold, silver and bronze medals, and the higher up the podium you are, the more chocolate you get." The nods and murmurs of assent showed Mari's suggestion to be pretty popular.

"Maybe we could have something like, the losers have to stay together for another month. Or should the winners stay together?" suggested Sohinki.

"I think the outright winners earn the right to stay together if they want to - and if they don't want to then maybe they can like, choose a pairing for the next month or something..." Ian trailed off, frowning, suddenly unsure of himself.

"So if me and Wes won, we could choose to stay together for the next month, or make you and Anthony pair up, for example?"

"I don't know, I don't think that really works as equal rewards... Maybe we could get first choice of who we want to pair up with next month? And then the second place people choose, if they haven't already been picked, and then third get to pick? That works, right?" There was a general sense of agreement following Wes's suggestion.

"Alright, so now we just need to sort out what games we're gonna play." Lasercorn paused for a moment to think then said, "But can we do that over lunch, I'm staaarving," and draped his arms over Ian's neck dramatically. Ian rolled his eyes, and they all headed off for lunch.


	5. Battle Ships

They renamed the new show when they were ironing out the details. They agreed that, while 'Ship Wars' was a great name, 'Battle Ships' seemed more appropriate. It took them a few weeks to sort everything out, but eventually the day came around to film the first episode. Wes and Joven drove over there together, and Joven was a complete bag of nerves. He was sat in the passenger seat, fidgeting constantly. Wes glanced over at him, frowning slightly.

"Josh? Everything okay, hun? You look nervous."

"I... er, um..." He couldn't look at Wes, and after taking a deep breath he blurted out, "I'mnotreadytotellpeopleaboutus," so quickly that it took Wes a moment to figure out what he'd said. When he had, he frowned.

"You're not ready to tell people about us? You mean... the fans? You're not ready for them to know yet?" Joven nodded, and Wes smiled, shaking his head.

"We don't have to tell them yet. Just because we're on the same team for Battle Ships-"

"But how else do we explain putting us two together? Iancorn and Marhinki make sense, 'cause those are really popular ships, but how do we explain why it's you and me and not me and Anthony? And don't suggest we mention my song, we are not drawing attention to that!"

Wes frowned thoughtfully. "We'll think of something. Maybe we'll show Anthony and Flitz picking each other? That would draw attention away from us. Don't worry about it, hun. It'll be fine." He briefly placed a hand a Joven's knee while they stopped at traffic lights. Joven smiled at him weakly. Wes checked the traffic quickly, then reached across and kissed Joven. It was brief and sweet, and it made Joven feel much better.

\- - - -

When they entered the game room, the only people still absent were Ian and Lasercorn. Anthony greeted them cheerily.

"Hey guys! You ready to battle it out?" He grinned at them, and they smiled back. Wes was about to bring up Joven's concerns about announcing the team choices, but Mari cut him off.

"So we've been talking about how we're gonna explain the team choices, 'cause obviously neither you guys or Iancorn are ready to be public about this, so we've come up with two options."

"Option one is we pretend to pick names out of a hat, so like we'll have eight bits of paper in a hat, and someone will pull out two at a time and read off names to make it seem like we ended up this way randomly." Sohinki had taken over the explanation, and now it passed to Flitz.

"Option two, we say that Iancorn and Marhinki are so popular that we decided to start with them, and then we let Anthony choose who he wants to partner, and he says..."

" 'Well since we're kicking it off with a dancing game, I'm gonna have to go with Flitz. He's the best dancer left.' So what d'you reckon? Which way sounds better to you guys?"

They looked at each other for a moment, before turning back to the group and saying as one, "Option one." Then Joven continued, "Option two is pretty much what we discussed in the car, but making it all seem like chance... I think it'll work more effectively."

"Yeah, and Ian and Lasercorn will probably like that one better too, it doesn't make it seem like they chose each other. Although they never seemed to mind joking around about their relationship, so it might not make that much difference to them."

"You guys were discussing this in the car?" Sohinki looked surprised.

"Well, yeah, since your attempt to out us failed, I got all jittery about the concept of possibly making it public with this video." Joven still hadn't completely forgiven Sohinki for posting the song. Sohinki winced slightly at the venom in Joven's voice during his accusation.

"Joven, I've told you so many times, I'm really sorry for doing that, I didn't mean to 'out' you, it was an honest mistake..." As Joven opened his mouth to reply, Wes cut him off.

"Guys, just drop it alright. You can't change it now, the past is in the past, so just-"

"Dude, did you just quote Frozen?" Flitz spluttered, laughing.

"Let it go, let it go, turn away and slam the door," Mari sang, before dissolving into a fit of giggles. Anthony and Sohinki were laughing too, and Joven had a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. Wes turned to him, and on seeing the smile gave him a stern look that quickly dissolved into a hurt pout when Joven started laughing too. The walrus noises coming from his mouth had everyone, bar Wes, laughing even harder than they already were. After a few moments Joven managed to still his laughter and saw Wes's pout, at which point he placed a hand on Wes's cheek.

"Aw, Wes, I'm sorry... I shouldn't have laughed, that was rude. I'm sorry, here I'll make it better," and he reached up to kiss his boyfriend. The others sobered up quickly then, looking away awkwardly. A voice from the doorway interrupted their kiss.

"Uhm, guys? Get a room will you." They split and turned to see Ian and Lasercorn stood in the doorway, Ian's arm around Lasercorn's shoulders, and Lasercorn's around Ian's waist. The gang greeted each other, and finished setting up for filming their newest show. They found a hat, a fez which Mari had decided to bring along for some reason, and placed eight blank scraps of paper in it. Anthony and Flitz explained the concept of the show, then Flitz picked up the fez.

"To pick teams for the first round, we've all written our names on a piece of paper, and placed them in Mari's fez."

"Why do you even have a fez, Mari?" asked Lasercorn.

"Because, fezzes are cool, guys," she replied, her tone implying that it was obvious.

"Well, Anthony, would you like to pick the first name?" Flitz asked, presenting the fez to Anthony, who plunged his hand in, digging around for a moment before he selected one of the blanks and pulled it out. He looked at it and announced,

"And Mari is the first name out of the fez of fate!" Mari rolled her eyes, while Joven and Lasercorn snickered slightly. "Mari, would you care to choose your partner?" Flitz held the fez out to her, and she reached in, grabbing the first bit of paper she touched.

"Sohinki. Yay!" Her voice was ripe with sarcasm.

"What's wrong with being on my team?" protested Sohinki.

"You're always such a sore loser, and if we lose it'll all be my fault!" she snapped back at him.

"Yeah, but we're starting out on a dancing game. You two have a serious advantage here," reasoned Ian. Flitz shook the fez, wanting to get through this quickly.

"Sohinki, how about you pick the next name?"

"Okay... And it's - drumroll please - it's... Wes!" The fez was thrust at Wes to pick his partner, and he pretended to read Joven's name out. Joven smiled and shrugged slightly, saying,

"Okay, that's... I could do worse." Then he was handed the fez, and he squinted at the bit of paper he picked out. "Wow, someone really needs to work on their handwriting. It's... umm... I think it's Flitz?" There was laughter from the others, and Flitz glared at Joven as he brought the fez back to himself.

"Well I guess I pick the next name. I'm being shipped with... Anthony! Hey, that's cool, I mean it was our idea..."

"And I think we all know who the other pair is, but to formalise it, Ian, Lasercorn..." The pair reached in together and pulled out the last two blank papers. They exclaimed in mock surprise when they looked at them.

"Hey, we're together again!"

"Iancorn unite!" They embraced, laughing.

"Well, now that we're all partnered up, let the battle begin!" Flitz said as dramatically as possible.

\- - - -

Predictably, Mari and Sohinki absolutely killed it with their dance. There was no question as to who would win this round. Wes and Joven followed them, and their dance was filled with awkwardness and giggles. Particularly when Joven 'accidentally' hit Wes's ass, which had them both laughing far too hard to actually dance properly. They gave it their best shot, but their score still took a serious hit from that one little touch. As he stepped up to dance with Flitz, Anthony said to Joven, "Thanks for taking the pressure off me." Joven responded by pulling a face at him, and Wes pulled him close cuddling him and placing a kiss on the tip of his nose. Then he turned to the others and clarified, "We're cutting that out." Joven laughed and reached up to kiss his boyfriend quickly before they separated to watch Anthony and Flitz dance. Flitz was clearly a way better dancer than Anthony, and he complained about it, a lot. Wes told him to "Suck it up, Flitz! You didn't hear me complaining about how bad Joven sucked."

"Hey!" Joven protested, but at a look from Wes he continued, "Okay, yeah, you're right."

After Anthony and Flitz had finished, it was Ian and Lasercorn's turn. They stepped into the centre of the room and Lasercorn said, "Well this feels awfully familiar."

"Yeah, you know, I'd better take my phone out of my pocket again," replied Ian, and the others laughed. Shortly after they started dancing Lasercorn said, "So I asked you to go steady with me last time, right?"

"Yeah..." replied Ian, not sure where Lasercorn was going with this.

"Well then..." Lasercorn continued. "Hey Ian, will you marry me?" There was a grin on his face as he said it, and Ian grinned back.

"You know it." There were whoops and cheers from the rest, as well as laughter.

"Do I get to be your best man, Ian?" asked Anthony, laughing. Ian nodded, too focused on a particular dance move to respond verbally. Lasercorn frowned, and said,

"Damn, who do I choose? Joven or Sohinki?" Everyone laughed at that, except Flitz, who protested,

"What about me? Do I not get a thought?" That got more laughs, and then they moved away from the subject. At the end of the dance, Ian decided that the lack of a lift was unacceptable, and after a short run-up he leapt for Lasercorn to catch him. It went decidedly better than their previous attempt, and after Lasercorn put Ian down, he asked,

"Do we get bonus points for that?" Everyone laughed at that, and Ian pulled Lasercorn in for a kiss. Then they all gathered round for the scores to be read out.

"So, the scores. I think we can all agree, Iancorn deserve some bonus points for their beautiful lift - have you guys been practicing that? - and so, 1000 bonus points gives them a final score of 15766." There were cheers and applause from the group, then Anthony continued, "Marhinki got 16832," more cheers, "Uhh... Flanthony," this name got a few laughs and a wolf whistle from Lasercorn, "scored 14034 and Weshire got 13997."

"Wow, so if Joven hadn't touched Wes's ass, they'd probably have beaten you," Mari stated, impressed. Wes turned to Joven and exclaimed,

"Goddammit, Joven! We could have beaten them! Why'd you have to touch my ass?"

"Because, it's just so juicy," replied Joven, which caused cries of disgust from everyone else. He and Wes silently agreed to pretend that was just him taking the joke too far, Wes edging away and Joven shaking his head, saying, "I did not think that through." Flitz cleared his throat to bring attention away from the awkward moment.

"So in terms of the leaderboard, Marhinki is in the lead, they have 4 points for winning, then we have Iancorn on 3, next Flanthony on 2 and down at the bottom, Weshire has 1 point."

"Yeah, but that's all gonna change next week, when we will destroy all of you!" proclaimed Joven, and Lasercorn snorted.

"Yeah, also I will sprout wings and Sohinki will not make a fuss about losing. C'mon Joven, you're never gonna win this." Everyone else laughed, but Joven gave Lasercorn a hurt look.

"Well if that's how it is, I don't want to be your best man," he replied, crossing his arms and looking away huffily. Ian turned to Lasercorn and asked,

"About that... were you serious?" Lasercorn blushed and looked down, scuffing his toe against the carpet.

"Well, maybe kinda... I was testing the water really, seeing how well it'd go down... I totally get it if you're not actually ready yet..." He trailed off, his mumbling becoming incoherent. Everyone else went silent, watching Ian as he looked at Lasercorn. There was silence for a moment, then,

"I love you Lasercorn, but until I come out properly, to everyone, it doesn't seem right to get engaged. Ask me again in like a month, when I've told my family about us, but it's too soon now. And you better make it romantic as hell next time, instead of something that could easily be taken as a joke." Lasercorn looked up at his boyfriend and smiled weakly.

"Okay, that sounds fair. In a month or so, I'm gonna romance the fuck out of you." They grinned at each other, then shared a soft kiss.


End file.
